Recently a friend asked my advice to prepare for a job interview with a charity that included a bit of communications work. I sent him some resources to read (including the excellent Media Trust online guides) and tried to condense my experience into something small and useful that I could pass on.
This is what I sent him, hastily scribbled in my lunch break. I was trying to capture the most important things I’ve learnt in my five years at the non-profit comms coalface:
1) BE STRATEGIC
Ask why you should do a particular piece of comms work (e.g. a facebook profile, a new leaflet), don’t just do it because you can. Identify a need, set objectives and measure progress.
2) BE JOINED UP
Find out what everyone else in the organisation is doing so you can avoid duplicating work or mixing messages and so you can spot communications opportunities. Could a policy briefing be simplified and used as a campaign leaflet? Could a cover letter be adapted into an email update? If there’s an interview with your CEO appearing in a magazine, see if you can get some discount advertising in there too. You might need to train your colleagues up to this, but it will be worth it!
3) EVALUATE EVERYTHING
Why do organisations end up with appalling communications year-on-year? Because no one ever checks to see if they’re working. One gift of the internet age is that you can track and measure nearly everything, from which links performed best in an email update to which parts of your site people spend the most time in. You can also track publications in a slightly more roundabout way using split-testing and codes. It’s not just a question of seeing how you’re doing and improving your performance, it’s also a way of continually learning more about your audience – people are getting more and more savvy to marketing of all kinds, evaluation will help you keep up.
These are just quick thoughts, not my magic formula (I’m not giving *that* away for free! If everyone had x-ray vision and superstrength, how would I keep my edge!?) For example, now I might add ‘use your imagination’. Or just cut it down to the first one.
‘Be strategic’ covers a lot, and it can be a tall order. Which is why I was pleased to come across this excellent series of blog posts giving clear and sensible advice on how to start smart communications planning. Advice which bears in mind the realities of work in the no-money-no-time sector, which gets a gold star from me.
Impactmax – DIY strategic communications planning for non-profits:
Step 1 What do you want to happen?
Step 2 Key audiences